Topped with preserved lemon brown butter and cooked to taste (mid-rare for me), this Cumbrae farm-fresh steak literally melts in your mouth. Add in sauteed honey mushrooms and handcut fries and you’ll forget all about the humidex. It really is the best summer indulgence.

This light hot and sour soup is the perfect summer appetizer and an exciting new vegetarian addition to our menu. Punching up the delicate Asian-inspired broth with crisp asparagus and pea shoots and intense bites of duxelle wonton bursting with mushroom flavour, this is a surprisingly refreshing way way to start off any summer meal.

Eating this gem of a NEW menu item is quite possibly the only thing (other than coffee) that is making this Tuesday after a long weekend tolerable.

This burrito is so much more than your average tortilla lunch wrapping; with crispy buttermilk chicken thighs, refried beans, coleslaw, sesame mayo and avocado puree smothered in Monterey jack cheese (14$) this burrito makes me forget where I am.

Although typically overlooked, thigh is my absolute favourite cut of chicken. Add buttermilk batter fried to crisp perfection and I’m drooling! Add refried beans, avocado and sesame mayo for a gentle creaminess, coleslaw for more crunch and a bit of acidity and best of all–tangy melted Monterey Jack and I’m pinching myself to see if this is a dream.

Luckily, just like a peace sign manicure, the Crispy Chicken Burrito is so real and absolutely delicious.

Yes, it’s true–we have some NEW menu items straight from the creative culinary mind of Chef Michael G. Smith’s himself. Just to make sure everything is tasting and looking up to par, I’ve decided to EAT IT.

With so many exciting dishes to try, I finally settled on the new vegetarian-friendly, Grilled Panelle & Cheese Sandwich made with Gruyere cheese, caramelized zucchini and Indian-spiced pickled eggplant (12).

Panelle, I found out, is a Sicilian-inspired fritter made from chickpea flour. Smothering the fritter-y goodness of the panelle with Gruyere and sweet, caramelized zucchini and putting it between 2 slices of bread definitely has me rolling out the “welcome to the menu” mat.

If there’s a BLT on a menu, I’ve probably had it. I’ve had ghetto BLTs from chain sandwich shops where the bacon is thin and microwaved, ones I make for myself where I end up eating all the bacon before the L & T portion of the sandwich are even built, and gourmet ones with chutney’s and hard-to-pronounce types of bread. So please believe me when I say that this BLT, with house-cured Tessa bacon, homemade mayo and sheep’s cheddar cheese on Pain au lait ($12) is perfection.

Obviously bacon, lettuce and tomato do a lot to make this BLT… well, a BLT at all. But it’s the C that really sets this sandwich apart. Yes, semi-soft sheep-milk cheddar; the perfect bookend for thick slices of bacon and homemade mayo. If you love BLTs as much as I do, bring your mouth this way and brace yourself for some BLT love.

When you put perfectly cooked slices of Indian-spiced lamb into sandwich form with pickled eggplant chutney, housemade paneer and watercress ($14) you get a lambwich so delicious it makes naan bread cry.

Cutting the spiciness of the eggplant and lamb with soft paneer pillows, you won’t be able to stop sinking your teeth into this lambwich.

Even though bacon is somewhat the ironic hipster of cured meats, there are still those times when I find myself in bacon awe. Yes, despite all the bacon ice creams, bacon-wrapped chocolate bars, bacon sprinkle donuts, bacon-shapped bandaids and weird bacon dog accessories, sometimes bacon really does make things better.

Point in case: today’s penne special with house-cured bacon, prawns, roasted tomatoes and arugula in browned butter ($13).

Thick juicy bacon melting into browned butter with a refreshing tomato/arugula finish. And yeah, there’s prawns in there too. Overplayed or not, this pasta proves that sometimes bacon really does deserve the hype.

When I hear that there are tacos for lunch I secretly do an inner happy dance. When I hear they are going to be Prawn and Whitefish Tacos with asparagus, carrots, red peppers, onions and crème fraich (with fries/salad $12), I do a full-force outer happy dance.

The delicate poaching of prawns complimented by hearty, buttery buckwheat soba noodles and salty/citrus ponzu dressing made a real soba-sensation for my mouth. Combined with crunchy acidic notes from the pickled ramps and finished with a tangy bite from the eggplant–this salad surpasses every soba dream I have ever had.